Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate causal attributions of learning disabled and normal achieving 7-8 and 11-12 year old boys for their success and failure performance on an academic task in a classroom setting. Subjects were 26 learning disabled and 26 normal achieving boys. Half the subjects in each group were 7-8 and 11-12 years old. The study assessed both the degree to which the child perceived attributes and the importance of each attribute. An attribute is viewed as a characteristic or quality, while an attribution concerns how important a particular attribute was in determining behavior. The five attributes used were global ability, specific ability, effort, task difficulty-personal, and task difficulty-general. In addition, all subjects had to rate their own degree of success or failure on the entire task. Two multivariate analyses of covariance with repeated measures procedures were used to analyze subjects' assessment of attributes and attributions. Both models contained percentage correct as the covariate. A correlation was performed between each of the five attributes and its corresponding attribution. Also, a correlation was performed between subjective test performance and objective test performance. The results of the study indicated that students' ratings of their attributes and attributions differed only under the success and failure situations. No differences in attribute or attribution ratings were found between learning disabled and normal achieving youngsters. There were no differences noted between children of different ages. In addition, subjects thought that expending effort and having high ability on a task were very important reasons for explaining success. Also, only the learning disabled children evidenced a significant positive correlation between subjective and objective test performance. The findings of the study are in contrast to previous research in this area. Various methodological factors may explain the differences. An important implication of the study is that results obtained in experimentally contrived situations may not be safely generalized to children's attributions in classrooms. Furthermore, attributions made by children may be mediated by the setting they are in and the task they have to perform.
Kahn, Gary Le (1984). Learning disabled and normal achieving 7-8 and 11-12 year old boys' attributions for success and failure on an academic task. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -407016.